Was the Turk really so 'terrible'?

Abstract

The Ottoman empire, from its inception until the present day, has frequently been portrayed as oppressive towards its non-Muslim subjects and bent on the destruction of Christendom through the prosecution of cihad or holy war: it was, according to various sixteenth century Turkenbuchlein writers, the 'scourge of God' and 'a Hereditary Foe of all Christians'. Simultaneously however, a parallel, but opposite discourse has stressed Ottoman religious tolerance towards, and co-existence with, its non-Muslim subjects and non-Muslim foreigners resident in the empire. So, was the Ottoman Empire an early modern embodiment of multi-culturalism or did it constitute a 'yoke of oppression' for its Christian and Jewish subjects?